"Huh?!" Lotus narrowed her eyes and looked to Riddle with a frown, "How long ago was this?"
"Yesterday, actually." Riddle answered, "He's never been able to understand it before. Trey could understand parts of it too."
Lotus frowned, "They couldn't have come across another pill, right?"
Riddle shook his head, "They didn't."
"Did they have anything unusual or maybe they had just had lunch of dinner before then..." Lotus shook her head, "No... They couldn't have used the flower on them. It isn't even something they would waste on someone who's a stranger to them."
Lotus thought for a long time before responding, "It certainly is unusual, but make sure to be careful if they find strange characters they could understand that's not out of my books. The flower isn't poisonous, but the fact that they might've consumed it... Are you sure they didn't just pieced the language together? Have you shared any of the characters with them?"
Riddle frowned, "On a few occasions, yes. But, they don't look through the books long enough to be able to figure out the language."
Lotus nodded after a while, "They'll be fine."
Riddle sighed in relief till Lotus continued, "However, the fact that they could probably have consumed it worries me the most. How did they come into contact with one so quickly?"
Riddle's smile quickly disappeared when he heard this, "That's..."
Lotus sighed, "You make your tea in your dorm, right? You can check where the water came from. Does Cater make your tea? Or maybe another student?"
"During that time, it was Cater." Riddle responded easily, "Trey was studying in his room before he came to give me a hand. The water should be cleaned and purified before it was transported to the school."
Lotus thought for a bit before she sighed, "I see. I'll go check on the pipes when I get the chance to. Right now, I don't think they plan to harm you. I doubt they even understand what's going on at the moment since they shouldn't be into the affairs of the society, they'll take their time to figure things out first. That should be their first priority."
Riddle nodded with a nervous frown on his face, "These guys are very annoying... To not even be able to eat in peace."
Lotus nodded with a grimace before she recalled something, "Ah, right. Here."
Riddle raised a brow and looked into the basket when he looked up in surprise, "White mice?! And is that rabbits?"
Lotus chuckled, "They're steam buns shaped into mice. After the last Unbirthday party, I thought it was interesting how you put jam on the noses of mice, so I made some steamed buns shaped like mice and make some shaped like rabbits. I got you pretty good, didn't I?"
Was she trying to fatten them up?! Despite his thoughts, Riddle shook his head with a small sigh, "You've really put a lot of effort into this."
Lotus laughed, "I hope my upperclassmen could give me a favorable response on this."
"I see." Riddle wore a small smile, "It is a work of art though..."
Lotus smiled, "Haha... Thank you for the compliment!"
There was no way she can tell him that it was something she thought up after hearing the upperclassmen from the Savanaclaw call them mice...
After packing away the food, they headed to the entrance before splitting up and heading their separate ways. As she walked away, Lotus began to wonder that she probably should've taken a different approach towards the herbs. The Zhi Lily was definitely hard to come by, but not for Lotus, because she's found that she have the plant planted in her spatial ring and have grown hundreds of it in there. When she made the mooncakes, she made sure to add a little of the lily in there.
Speaking of Lilies, she should really get ready to go flower hunting. According to Cater, they would be going through with a plan to catch the Savanaclaw off guard. Not to mention, Jack was helping them since all he wanted was a fair competition, which was why he disliked his peers using the game as a way to beat them up.
.....
After dinner with the Prefect and Grim, she returned to her studies before and packed some stuff before leaving the room and telling the two that she was going to do some studying and made sure to securely lock the door threatening Grim to deduct his cans if he should ever try to break into her room.
With that, she turned on her ability and jumped out of her window to the trees.
.....
When she entered the dorm, she quickly snuck out of the dorm grounds and used a mixture she had diluted onto herself as she hurried across the plains. The humid winds were warm against her cheeks and the energy in the air was a little scarce as she stepped out onto the sands.
The plains were wide and the horizon was nowhere to be seen. Yet, the stars shown over her like a milkyway. She was surprised to see this as she went looked over her dark surroundings. Compared to the light of the town, this was a sight to behold.
Her surroundings were dark but she wasn't afraid in the least as she carefully stepped through the dry grass. Having once been a plant, she was very familiar with the dark. In fact, for the first thousand years of her previous life, she had been alone in the dark. The place she grew up cultivating in was a cold and desolate place.
Barren with rocks and the humid air, the land was looked upon with abandonment. It was the place where any sought to abandon the things they used to value: objects, creatures, and people.
Other times, it was a place to meditate or where the most poisonous creatures to find their refuge. Lotus was once a flower fairy without name at the time. It was the time where she spent the darkness to delve into her cultivation practice under the elements and spent the light spreading her energy and roots to protect herself.
The darkness was a sense of calm for her, even now.
Lotus slipped through the darkness as the cool wind blew against her skin. She picked up her feet careful not to kick up dust as she rushed through the bushes and past the boulders carefully. She then lept onto the Acacai trees. It was then that she heard movements and halted on top of a tree far from the dorm.
She checked her ability was in use and waited in the shadows of the branches quietly. Sure enough, below her, two dark figures slipped into the shadows of the tree as a figure of a middle aged man with a goatee turned to scowl at the younger, "How much longer before you can find breakthrough the array in that mirror? I've already given you two days..."
"My deepest apologies!" The other fell to his knees, "My Metallic Sapphire tarantulas have not returned. I believe they have captured them-! Ah!"
There was a loud thud as the younger guy went flying through the air and crashed into the flat boulders followed by a bone-crushing sound. The guy crumbled to the ground shivering as the other towered over him with a scowl, "I'll give you two more days. I don't care how you do this. Create chaos, go on a massacre or something. Just get this done or I'll have someone else take your place!"
The older guy then flicked his sleeve and disappeared into the darkness. She then watched the younger guy grumble as he slowly picked himself up off the ground, "Curse it all! Just because those fools can't do their job... Now the boss is making me clean up after them..."
The guy pursed his bloody lips with piercing eyes before he took in a pill from his ring. Lotus watched curiously as she saw him pull out gigantic tarantula that was the height of a human!
The head was flat and wide with eight hairy legs stretched out from underneath it. The abdomen was a foot taller than the head. An iridescent and coarse hair shone under the light of the half-moon and glittering stars making the creatures beady eyes almost look like glass beads. In all, it was a horrifying and beautiful creature.
The man sneered as he turned to the spider, "You know what to do. I don't care what information you receive, just bring back with the one that's the most interesting."
Curious, she watched the creature then shot out a bunch of spiders from his ring. The tarantula leader than gave out a bunch of gestures as well as a threatening pose before sending the spiders away. Lotus thought for a bit while watching the cultivator nurse his wounds with a scowl. Lotus did not move as she watched the man bring back his spider and slink away into the shadows of the opposite direction. That's when she remembered something rather important...
She turned back and headed for the dorm once more.
There she noticed the lights to one of the dorm was still open as she pondered with a small hum before decidedly lept on the roof of the wooden roof over a patio. She found that the place was wider than their lounge with a small waterfall and a few chairs. The place was lit by torches as a young man stood in the center with a few Savanaclaw students around him. It was Leona.
Apparently, he was giving Ruggie a small scolding over being found out today.
Lotus recalled Grim and Yuu giving her a recount of what happened as Grim stuffed his face full of the mice steam bun stuffed with minced meat and veggies. The way the sparkling eyes became adorably piercing when the topic of the case came up. Lotus tried really hard not to laugh at the poor cat who looked like he caught a white mouse with the white tail sticking out of his jaw.
After Leona gave out another reminder of their plan, one of the students cheered, "The pro leagues are gonna want us too."
"Hah." Leona gave a low laugh, "You guys are already getting excited like you've already caught your prey."
"And your popularity will skyrocket, Leona!" The fox guy pointed out with a sneer at the thought of the might Malleus brought down by Leona.
"Everyone in the Sunset Savannah are gonna think Leona is a better fit to be king." the latter student agreed.
The sudden topic brought up a new conversation to boast over. However, their dorm leader's smile quickly disappeared as he grumbled quietly to himself as if a reminder, "Theory and practice are two different things."
"Huh?" Ruggie's ears shifted as he turned to Leona in confusion.
"Nothing..." Leona yawned, "I'm going to bed. Scatter."
"Roger." Ruggie nodded with a wide smirk, "Good night, Leona."
"Being the top at school doesn't mean the whole world gets turned on its head." Leona grumbled after seeing that they were out of sight.
King?
Lotus raised a brow in confusion. She watched the others leave with excitement as Leona grumbled to himself before about to take his leave. She spoke up, "Hey..."
This time, Leona stopped and spun around with a rather scary expression on his face, "Who's there?!"
Lotus watched him curiously before continuing, "I'm Peony. Who are you?"
"Peony?" Leona glared before looking around with twitching ears and a new look of irritation, "Ah. It must be you from this morning..."
"Yup!" Lotus spoke with a wide smile, "They called you Leona?"
Leona frowned before reaching out at her swiftly. However, Lotus had already predicted this and lept back. She pouted, "Nu-huh! I don't wanna get caught!"
"Tsk!"
Leona grimaced and glanced around before noticing a piece of honey ham one of the students carelessly left behind. He raised a brow upon the convenience and picked it up. She smirked, "I'm not that interested in meat! Hehe..."
Lotus watched as he scowled and smirked. It was like teasing a cat with a laser light!
How was this any different to Grim?!